Lilithm's Stories

Wasteland (One Shot)

As Vinnie slowly opened his eyes, he felt as if thousands of needles had been stabbed into his left arm. Without holding anything back, he cried out. Vinnie starred at his arm to see what has happened to it. “Oh God…” he thought to himself. No bigger than an inch, a small metal pole was sticking out of his arm. He decided to wait for a while before even attempting to remove the object. Vinnie surveyed his surroundings in that time. Although at first he could not recognized where he was, but it only took him seconds to realize that he was on a plane. The words “Zena Transportation 32” was labeled on the door of what remained of the cockpit. “That’s right; I was on the last plane from L.A. to Nevada.” His eyes widened when he realized what had happened. A few days ago, there was a national state of emergency. Some country he could not remember the name of had launched missiles aimed at the United States. Vinnie barely got on the last plane out of the city that left what had seemed to be a few hours ago. “We never made it…” he thought to himself.

As he looked around he saw bodies. Among the bodies was a familiar face. The face was that of someone he had loathed for many years. The familiar face was that of his neighbor. Vinnie had remembered what the neighbor had done to him in the years they lived next to each other. He had called the police on him on multiple occasions suspecting that he had something illegal or just out of hatred for him. The man was still in his seat with his seatbelt on. He was wearing a black suit and a tie. His head was cut open by a sharp object. Vinnie wanted to smile that a long time pain had finally left him, but now a new wound had replaced it. His arm was covered in blood from the wound. “At least it has stopped bleeding.” he smirked. None of the other bodies were moving except one. It was a young man. Vinnie stared at the man as he struggled. The man’s chest had been punctured somehow and his face was badly burned. The man let out one last breath, and stopped moving entirely. The area around Vinnie was silent again. “I cannot die here, not yet.” he thought. He slowly got up despite the pain from his arm. Vinnie leaned against the chair he was besides. Just then, he heard something scuffle. He tracked the sounds to the cockpit doors with his ears. Suddenly the cockpit opened and what a figure stood behind it. The figure had a slender body with a slightly bigger chest. “It’s a woman.” he thought to himself. The woman’s face was covered by a black bandana. All Vinnie could see were her deep blue eyes. She was wearing a long black sleeved shirt as well as black jeans. Over her long sleeved shirt was a thick vest. Strapped to her right side was a pistol of some sort and as for the left was a knife. In her hands was a hunting rifle. “Help me…” a soft voice said. Over in right corner of the cockpit was the pilot. He was badly injured and barely able to move. The woman closed her and breathed. She reopened her eyes and stared at the dying man. She unsheathed her knife and held the edge to the man. With a quick motion the knife had entered the man’s throat and left. She then put her hands over the man’s eyes and closed them. The woman sheathed her knife and began to walk again. Vinnie could now feel the hot wind that was coming from the cockpit. He could see a giant hole where the pilot used to sit. Behind it was sand. “A desert, how wonderful.” he smiled. He stared at the woman who was now standing in front of him. “Are you going to kill me too?” he asked as he stared at the woman. “No, I won’t. That man that I killed asked to die. I just granted his wish.” the woman said in a soft voice. Vinnie wanted to ask what has happened, but he decided against it.

He had seen how these types of situations play out in movies and books so many times he had them down to memory. “This next part should be when the protagonist dies.” he thought. The thought made him laugh. The woman’s eyes widened for a moment then regained their normal size. “Why are you laughing?” she asked with the same soft, yet cold voice. “It’s nothing, just a thought had come to mind, that’s all.” Vinnie responded, still laughing. He wanted to run away, escape like in the movies. He wanted to laugh and hope all this was all just some sort of joke, but it wasn’t. This was no video game, movie, or book. This was his life. On his left there was a corpse besides him. It was the sky marshal. His body had been thrown to the middle of the aisle where Vinnie was. Still holstered to his side was a small revolver. “What will happen to me now?” he asked the woman. “What do you think happens to you?” The woman responded. Vinnie was tempted to go for the revolver, but he knew he would not reach it in time. By the time Vinnie would even touch the revolver, the woman would have placed a bullet in his head. The woman noticed where he was looking and asked “Do you want that?” She crouched down, un-holstered the revolver and handed it to Vinnie. He stared back at the woman. “Why give this to me? Aren’t you afraid that I would shoot you?” he asked with fixed eyes. “You don’t seem to be the kind of man to shoot a woman. Also you seemed interested in it.” She responded as she continued to loot the sky marshal. Vinnie studied the weapon. The revolver was very light and only held five bullets; none of them were fired. “There isn’t any reason to stay around these par-“her voice started to trail off. Vinnie’s vision was starting to blur, and a bright light began to shine. “Damn it, just what I needed.” She said to herself as she lifted Vinnie over her shoulder. With Vinnie on her shoulder, she walked back outside, looked around to see nothing, but miles of sand. She then started to walk, then paused and thought, “This is going to be a long day…”